I consider myself a casual comic book fan. Back in the day, before I had a job and a wife and a house and hobbies and, you know, a life, I was a junkie. I spent every day reading comics, would ride my piece of shit BMX bike to the comic book store every Saturday and spend every dime I had on them. So it's rather refreshing to see comic books being adapted into movies, and in many cases, being done well.

That said, in the effort to capitalize on the trend, producers and directors are mining every comic book in existence these days. It's not always a bad thing -- we're getting some fun looking films out of some of the more obscure ones -- Kick Ass, Ghost World, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World -- all lesser known comics, all pretty good to great films (although the jury's still out on Scott Pilgrim, but it looks fun).

The newest one is going to be a film based on the 2006 Image Comics graphic novel "SOCOM: SEAL Team Seven," by M. Zachary Sherman and Robert de la Torre. I've never read it, but the story is pure comic book perfection -- a CIA analyst rejoins his SEAL team to investigate a missing submarine in the Persian Gulf, and ends up in a full-blown war against... Atlantis. The film will shorten the title to simply SEAL Team Seven.

Obviously, there are some pretty clear comparisons to be made to The Abyss -- downed submarine, Navy SEALs, underwater civilizations. It sounds a lot more action-oriented, and could be pretty fun. The director currently in talks to helm it is pretty promising, given the genre -- Dean Parisot. Parisot has an... unusual... filmography. He's got some crap on his resume -- Home Fries, Fun With Dick and Jane, for example. He's got one major winner -- Pajiba reader favorite Galaxy Quest, which is one of those genuinely fun movies. And, my personal favorite, he also directed "Arthur, Interrupted," which is an excellent episode of the tragically short-lived live-action adaptation of "The Tick." That buys him some goodwill from me.

This is one of those projects that's a million years from happening -- Parisot is still in talks, there's no cast yet, etc. But it's somewhat intriguing. I'll keep you posted.